'Elvis' The Movie - Cast Interview
“Elvis” stars Austin Butler (Elvis), Tom Hanks (Colonel Tom Parker), Olivia DeJonge (Priscilla Presley), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (B.B. King), Alton Mason (Little Richard), Yola (Sister Rosetta Tharpe), and director Baz Luhrmann sit down with CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell to talk about the making of a story about The King. Austin Butler describes his nervous energy about singing in front of strangers and how they shot the film’s concert sequences. Tom Hanks and director Baz Luhrmann talk about being asked to compromise artistic vision for those who want to profit. Yola, Alton Mason, and others discuss the idea of talent and whether or not the talent of someone like Elvis is timeless.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 I want to go back into the theater with a bunch of strangers and leave with something in common.
00:04 That's what I want to do.
00:05 ♪ These pictures of mine ♪
00:07 ♪ Everyone's told me ♪
00:08 ♪ That things are too dangerous to say ♪
00:11 ♪ All my love's mine ♪
00:16 ♪ Sing ♪
00:17 Baz stages these concerts with full-on audiences and screaming fans,
00:23 and I want to know how that kind of impacted your performance to have a crowd in front of you.
00:28 Well, so for one, I was really nervous about that,
00:31 because I'd never performed in front of a crowd before.
00:34 I'm not, I never sang in front of anybody except my very close friends before.
00:39 And in a moment of panic, I called Rami Malek and I was like,
00:44 "What, how did it feel? What did you go through?" and all those things.
00:48 And he said, "You know, I really, those days, you end up feeling the energy of the audience,
00:54 and it becomes this thing that those will probably end up becoming your favorite days on set."
00:58 And it was so true.
00:59 And also the way that, like you were saying, the way that Baz did it.
01:02 Very early on, we kind of set out to not have these moments where
01:07 it's shifting between, "Here I am, Austin," and then, "There's Elvis."
01:12 So anytime, even when he gave me direction, it was all kind of within the context of
01:17 what we were, the concert that we were doing or whatever.
01:21 Because they are all different.
01:22 Yeah, yeah. And so like in Vegas, the way we do it is this curtain comes up, I come out,
01:27 we do the entire concert, curtain comes down.
01:30 So the audience every time is getting the feeling of being at a concert.
01:34 Wow.
01:34 Yeah. So we weren't breaking it up.
01:38 And so it meant that they had the experience of not seeing any illusion broken.
01:43 Oh my God, that's incredible. You actually gave them a concert every single time.
01:47 And we did that in Russwood as well.
01:49 And so there's always the moment of, Baz calls them supporting artists,
01:54 all the people in the audience, they're just so, I was so impressed with them.
01:59 There's girls in the audience with tears in their eyes and just the emotion that they had
02:03 felt so truthful.
02:05 So when I look in their eyes and I'm seeing real emotion,
02:07 seeing a girl blush and a girl with tears in her eyes,
02:09 it transcends what you imagine that moment will be.
02:13 One of the things I found so fascinating about the film is all the times that Elvis was asked
02:16 to compromise his vision, essentially, and to tune down the show to help the business side of it.
02:21 And I'm just curious how often you and your collaborators have run into that.
02:24 No, never. Well, mostly it's kind of like, can it have a happy ending?
02:28 You know, can you be a little more nice? Why are you so cranky in this movie?
02:32 It comes around like that.
02:33 But I've been for a long time in a pretty lucky position in which I get to weigh though,
02:38 you eventually have this vote, yes or no.
02:42 And if you say yes, there you go.
02:45 And it's really hard to say no sometimes because the people are great, you know,
02:49 you get, you know, who knows, you get to go to Graceland or something like that.
02:52 But unless you have an understanding of there is a,
02:56 there you are going, there is a theme you're going to examine in a very specific way.
03:00 If they're not going to let you do that, then you have to say no or fight tooth and nail
03:04 on her to get what you want. And I've done that a couple of times.
03:07 I think the finance years have given up on that one with me.
03:13 They've given up on it. Like a lot of people have given up on that with me.
03:17 I mean, it's not, listen, Sean, I'm not arrogant about it.
03:20 Like I genuinely, I decided to make things I hope that have relevance now,
03:26 but also will be relevant in the future.
03:28 And honestly, I just see it as my duty to do the work.
03:32 I came here to start research five years ago here, Graceland.
03:36 And I wouldn't have believed that five years later, I'd be sitting here and
03:40 being asked to have a barbecue in Graceland and invited in by the family.
03:44 Like as if I was in someone's home.
03:47 You're right about what you're getting at.
03:49 Like the show isn't a biopic. It's really about the cell and the soul, you know?
03:55 And Parker is this gigantuan mister like, "Ahh."
03:58 You know, he's a clown with a chainsaw.
04:01 I mean, we've seen characters like that recently, you know, say anything, do anything.
04:05 And he argues in the movie, "Listen, I didn't kill Elvis.
04:10 You know what? I just did my job."
04:12 It's not in this movie. I didn't put this bit in.
04:15 But when Elvis dies and the Colonel gets the phone call,
04:20 the first thing he does is pick the phone straight up and ring RCN and say, "Print more records."
04:25 Now we all go, "Yeah, what a cold human being."
04:28 Actually, probably yes.
04:30 But he would go, "Yeah, but you wanted the records."
04:33 Like, "I've just did my job."
04:35 Yeah.
04:36 Right? You know what I mean?
04:36 Like, of course, you of course will...
04:38 I'm not here to tell you the Colonel's right or wrong.
04:41 I'm here to engage everybody out there in the audience and have them come into a dark room,
04:45 all as strangers, watch a story, and feel something afterwards,
04:49 and have a discussion and a drink and a dance and whatever, you know?
04:53 Are you born with destiny?
04:56 Or does it just come knocking at your door?
05:01 I want to know if you think talent is timeless.
05:05 And by that, I mean, if Elvis were born in 2007,
05:08 do you think he still would have figured out a way to break into the entertainment industry?
05:11 Well, do you know what?
05:13 It's really dependent on whoever's cognitive bias.
05:18 Let's go to the executives of the industries that we deal in.
05:22 You know, when I was growing up, I was told that no one had wanted to hear a black woman
05:27 sing rock and roll.
05:28 And they were like a head of A&R of a record company.
05:32 And so then I'm like, "Wait a minute.
05:34 You don't know. I know a certain amount about music.
05:36 And I grew up with Cicero's Air.
05:38 How don't you know who invented rock and roll?"
05:40 And so then it becomes this thing that, I suppose, guides who gets signed and who doesn't.
05:48 And so maybe Elvis still gets signed because he's white.
05:51 And that's really where we are still,
05:54 jousting with this thing of, "Are you plus and dark skin?"
05:58 Right, right, right.
06:00 Oh, man.
06:01 Uphill battle.
06:03 Well, you know, I'm doing all right.
06:04 I've got six Grammy nominations.
06:05 I ain't gonna cry.
06:06 But like, don't cry for me, Argentina.
06:09 All right, mate?
06:10 But like, it's like the idea of seeing a gazillion me's versus just me,
06:18 or me and some other people.
06:20 That's really so, like, I wonder how many of the legends of our ancestors come up and get that.
06:30 I think maybe Elvis still does.
06:33 You know?
06:34 I don't know.
06:34 He would have been totally different.
06:35 I think there's way too many artists to be able to sing.
06:41 It's just like, I don't really necessarily, I don't know.
06:42 I don't really know if there's room for, like, big, big, like,
06:46 puss icons like Elvis, Michael, Prince anymore.
06:50 Yeah.
06:50 Just like, I don't really think there's gonna be, like, big movie stars like that anymore.
06:53 You know what I mean?
06:54 Tom Hanks is a rare thing.
06:55 True.
06:55 Very true.
06:56 Austin might break it through, though.
06:57 I'll tell you that much.
06:58 He's giving us a run for his money.
07:00 He's got the magnetism.
07:02 That's real.
07:02 To make it happen.
07:03 Yeah.
07:03 If Elvis were born in 2007, would he have still figured out a way to break into the show business?
07:07 Yes, I think absolutely he would have, because it's a transcendent moment.
07:12 And I think you can look at any number of artists right now who have that one thing in common that
07:17 Elvis had is that they go some other place when they start performing.
07:21 You know?
07:21 And I don't, I think there was certainly times later on where maybe Elvis didn't care too much.
07:27 And maybe when he was, you know, recording the 17th set up of "Bossa Nova Baby" and,
07:32 you know, and "Fun in Acapulco," maybe he didn't want, maybe he wasn't putting everything into it.
07:37 There is an aspect of, you know, time and place that is undeniable.
07:40 But if we had never seen Elvis Presley and never seen that representation of a guy
07:45 interpreting rhythm and blues or rock and roll with this kind of, like, physical abandon,
07:51 much less the quality of the, and voice of the timbre, I think everybody would just say,
07:55 "Who's that guy?"
07:56 And he would be the same sort of forbidden fruit.
07:58 Yeah, I mean, talent and circumstance.
08:00 I mean, the reason that I ask certain artists to tribute during the credits,
08:05 and I hope the audience watched the credits, like when Eminem made the song "The King and I,"
08:11 that's Eminem going, "I relate to Elvis's journey. I had a similar journey."
08:17 The circumstances of Elvis growing up, dad going to jail, the shame,
08:23 ending up in the black community, you know, Beale Street, friends breaking segregation laws,
08:31 all that journey, all that, yes.
08:33 There's always going to be some child with some broken heart seeking to have unrequited love,
08:44 like, sorry, unconditional love, and do something, whether it's a funny joke,
08:50 they're funny, or they can dance, or they sing, whatever they do, and love comes across the
08:56 footlights, and they grow, and they get better and better and better, but it comes back to your
09:00 first question. Eventually, someone's going to start giving them money for that, and then someone's
09:05 going to give more money for that, but then someone's going to be going like, "But if you do
09:08 this, you'll get more money," and da-da-da-da-da, and they're just a human being, and it's going to
09:12 tear them apart. That story is going to happen again, but the profound uniqueness of Elvis's
09:20 life, a 42-year life, it seems like it was 100 years. I do think talent is timeless. In the way
09:26 that Van Gogh didn't really sell a painting until after his death, you know, it's all within the
09:35 context of how people are perceiving things as well. I know that he hit at a particular point.
09:43 So him changing the atmosphere in the 50s, that was something that nobody had experienced before,
09:53 but I do think that music is timeless, and you could walk through a museum and see a painting,
10:03 and it may impact one person. Another person may just walk right by, and I think right now,
10:10 we're in a period where people may be overwhelmed by the amount that's out there, and also the
10:16 shock value of a lot of stuff out there. So Elvis, what he was doing in the 50s wouldn't be shocking.
10:21 You're right.
10:22 Right, right.
10:23 You know, so there's that as well. That's a really interesting question.
10:25 I like to say that movies don't change at all, but we change, you know? So something that you see
10:30 10 years from now.
10:31 That's so true.
10:32 Yeah, it's the same movie.
10:33 Same movie.
10:34 But we're a different person sitting in front of it.
10:35 You've experienced different things in your life, and it's hitting you in new ways.
10:40 My story, I'll wrap on this, is I saw Finding Nemo when it was in theaters,
10:44 and then when it came to home video, in that time, I'd found out I was going to be a father
10:48 for the first time. And it was a totally different movie. It was completely different.
10:54 So art changes. You like that.
10:56 That really is beautiful.
11:05 There are moments in the film when the act of entertaining gets disrupted by real life,
11:10 you know, assassinations and tragedies that happen. And in the moment, in the film,
11:15 it almost suggests that art is frivolous. Like this Christmas special that Elvis is working on
11:20 doesn't amount to what's going on. But you don't think art is frivolous, do you?
11:25 Well, I wrote a song called "Diamond Studded Shoes," and it's about the previous Prime Minister
11:30 of the UK, Theresa May, and how she was delivering a little story about swiping meals out of the
11:36 hands of babes whilst wearing diamonds in her heels, which, you know, is a bit rich, to be honest.
11:42 And so I've always kind of put the two together. It's like a call to arms for everyone else on Earth,
11:49 all the other humans, to go, you know, "Stop riding us all the way to the bank, please."
11:54 You know, like I've always had that element of, like, trying to have a higher purpose to what I'm
12:01 doing, be it in galvanizing of people, of working classes, of, like, people from, like, a rainbow
12:08 coalition of people. That's definitely what my crowd looks like. My fans look like every part
12:14 of Earth. It's cool. It's so cool. But yeah, and so, like, a film, and I think, like, I just watched,
12:23 like, Judas and the Black Messiah. Oh, yeah. And that whole kind of idea of just, like,
12:27 like, bringing everyone together is, like, a really great thing. It's a really great mission
12:33 and purpose. And I think music has, every revolution has a soundtrack. Well, you have,
12:40 I think that art has to take into account some aspect of the zeitgeist that's going on.
12:45 Sometimes the taking into the zeitgeist, that means let's do something so totally different
12:50 that this has truly, and everybody knows this has no connection to what's really going on,
12:55 much like the carnival on the edge of town. You know, the lights are on, the Ferris wheel is set
13:00 up. Let's go see the elephant and let's have a great night for a night or two, and then we'll
13:04 come back and deal with all the problems in town. You know, the plumbing doesn't work and we don't
13:09 have a good bus, you know, we don't have a good bus system. But the other time I think is you have,
13:14 and I think Baz did a great job on this, is understanding the racial divide that was
13:19 extremely cultural in between when Elvis first fell in love with music and by the time he's got
13:26 the sweet inspirations up on stage with in Las Vegas. There is something there that you, that
13:30 you had to pay some attention to. Otherwise, I think you're, you lack a brand of authenticity
13:38 that I think is the whole point of being in cinema in the first place. People do it with
13:41 inspiring them. Otherwise, you know, I hope they aren't doing it. And I think, I think it comes
13:46 down to the individual. If they don't find that there's some purpose in it, then there probably
13:51 is none. If someone's forcing them to do something, then that's a different story, you know? And I
13:55 think a Christmas special, if someone's trying to make money off and you don't want to do it, then
13:58 probably not, probably not best. Not the best idea. It seemed, watching the movie, that Elvis
14:04 was photographed constantly and that there was a lot of footage for Austin to look at and maybe get
14:08 some ideas, but I wasn't quite sure with BB King, how much was even around available for you to take
14:13 a look at, archival footage? Was there any available? And even like any specific thing
14:17 that you looked at that... It was limited because I think that it was more so focused in the 70s,
14:21 80s and further down. But, and I'm, obviously I'm playing BB King in the 60s, so I didn't get to
14:28 see anything except pictures. But, you know, you know, when you think about it, people don't really
14:33 actually act that different. So all I had to do is just take some of the through lines and I found
14:38 this really fascinating guitar tutorial that he did where he kind of broke down how he improvises.
14:44 And I always find that musicians tend to talk like they play. And so I kind of got a lot of
14:50 inspiration for, you know, speech patterning and where he found something more tender or, you know,
14:56 it kind of slows it down because in a song you can listen to it, but there's something about the way
15:00 he explains that he gets really excited about a certain note or a certain bend. I don't know.
15:05 And I was like, oh, this is where the pocket sits in certain conversations. So yeah.
15:10 Does that pocket exist with acting too?
15:12 Oh, absolutely. You know, I think, well, I don't know. It's interesting. There's a musicality to
15:18 it. And I tend to, like, I'll pull from anyone. Like, say I met you and I was like, man, I really
15:25 like, you know, the way he talked and I like the way he, you know, nodded and the way he looks when
15:31 he's listening. I was like, I'm going to take that and then I'll put it in a movie and apply
15:34 it to a different character.
15:35 Okay.
15:35 I want credit. I want residuals.
15:40 Got a good lawyer?
15:42 Yeah.
15:43 How much of Little Richard was available and what did you, is there a piece of it that you saw that
15:52 really said like, oh, now I kind of figured out who he is?
15:55 I dove in really deep and dived into all of his interviews, his performances, and even his
16:02 rehearsals. And there was one screening rehearsal that really resonated to me deeply because it's
16:08 just him in the theater and there's no audience, there's no band. It's just him and the piano.
16:13 And you hear the rasp in his voice, which training came from him playing the saxophone as well.
16:18 And you just hear his joy because it was a young Little Richard at like the age of like 20, 21.
16:24 And in the film, I play a young 22 year old Little Richard at Club Handy.
16:29 So that resonated with me and aligned with me in a different way,
16:32 helped me develop the intention and the sense of direction.
16:36 I've never been to Cannes either, so I mean, I got that in common.
16:44 Oh man, that's a good start.
16:46 Yeah.
16:47 You're dressed for the humidity of this conference.
16:49 I'm from North Carolina.
16:51 Oh, so you know what this is like.
16:52 I know better, yes.
16:53 I didn't feel it until I came back east for the first time when I was 20.
16:58 Okay.
16:59 And then I felt humidity for the first time. I thought, well, you know,
17:02 no wonder the pioneers kept moving because they didn't want to put up.
17:04 It's sticky and there's bugs everywhere.
17:06 I get it.
17:07 Have you tried a peanut butter and banana sandwich?
17:10 Dead, yes.
17:11 You did?
17:12 Yes.
17:12 How is it?
17:13 It's fantastic.
17:13 Is it really?
17:14 Have you not?
17:14 No, I just got here this morning, so I'm going, I'm going to get one tonight at the hotel.
17:17 Oh, yes, absolutely.
17:19 Change your life?
17:19 Here I am, smiling.
17:22 It's going to be strange to be in theaters opposite of Buzz Lightyear film.
17:25 How about that?
17:27 Why it's not, I actually, I wanted to go head to head with Tim Allen and then
17:31 didn't, they didn't let Tim Allen do it. I don't, I don't understand that.
17:34 That's Chris Evans kid.
17:35 Ah, yeah, yeah, I know.
17:36 But here, here's the thing is, just as long as people come back to the motion picture theater,
17:40 don't you, I want to go back into the theater with a bunch of strangers and leave with something
17:45 in common. That's what I want to do. Going, going to see a movie with him. I'm looking forward to that.